Outdoor gear rewards network Active Junky looks to expand with $1.3M investment

 

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Active Junky, an outdoor gear rewards and review site, has raised a $1.3 million Series A. The round was officially closed in May, but only made public recently. The company has referral partnerships with over 200 outdoor gear retailers and it splits referral fees with its members, giving them cash back. This latest funding is being used to hire additional employees and re-launch its website. 

 

“Active Junky is at the crossroads between commerce and content in the outdoor sports industry,” said founder and CEO Kevin McInerney. “We identified that there are so many retailers in this industry that sell similar products at similar prices and there was a need for a company in the middle with two questions: what to buy… and where to buy it.”

 

“We have an in-house and editorial team that is actually testing these products,” said McInerney.

 

Active Junky has also negotiated cash back deals with various outdoor retailers, so members get rewarded for their shopping.

 

Users start by logging into Active Junky, then clicking through to an outdoor retailer like REI. “We actually have a piece of code on REI.com that realizes that one of our members is on their site,” said McInerney.

 

When Active Junky sends a customer their way, outdoor retailers send back cash. Active Junky keeps part of the referral fee and splits the rest of the money with its member. Checks and PayPal payments are sent out to customers every quarter.

 

The business model is entirely focused on outdoor gear. And business is good. McInerney said the company’s sales are already spiking because of the holiday shopping season. 

 

Using new revenues and its recent funding Active Junky will be hiring five additional employees in engineering, marketing, analytics and sales before 2015.